Washington, Sep 5 : Twitpic on Thursday announced that it will shut down later this month after a trademark battle with Twitter.

Twitpic founder Noah Everett said that the announcement was hard to make, but the decision was made after Twitter threatened to cut off Twitpic's access to its application programming interface, CNET reported.

The company filed its trademark application with the US Patent and Trade Office in 2009, but an 'implied' threat of disconnect from Twitter's API came from Twitter counsel during a recent published for opposition, report said.

Everett added that they do not have the resources to fend off a large company like Twitter to maintain their mark, which he believes is rightfully theirs. (ANI)